Jim Horne found a new hobby when he

Jim Horne found a new hobby when he moved into Doe Mill (see photo), a TND in Chico, California. “After seeing Doe Mill, I wanted to see what else has been built using the same principles,” he says. Horne, who runs a family business manufacturing laminated counter- and table-tops, takes frequent business trips up and down the West Coast. He began researching and visiting new urban projects along the way, taking pictures, gathering information, and writing his impressions. The result is a website, www.tndwest.com, containing write-ups on more than 90 projects. So what has Horne learned? “My first conclusion is that there are not that many TNDs that work the way they are supposed to,” he says. Either critical elements are missing — sometimes because they are not yet built — or projects touted as New Urbanism are in fact hybrids of conventional and new urban approaches, he explains.